Tailor Tales: Sharked?

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Tailor Tales: Sharked?

Published on Thursday, 16 June 2011 18:04

Written by Jay Penfold

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When that nagging little voice inside your head says “I should retie that terminal knot before I throw another lure overboard”, the best advice is to retie it. More on that later. This morning was a corker, blue skies, a little solid breeze, so I thought I'd take the Revo for a sail, and maybe catch a fish or two in the process. Action has been slow lately, but a full moon and full tide gave me hope for something more. Setting sail to the usual haunts, was a fairly brisk trip, but King's Creek was the target, a good 7km from my favourite spot. Trolling a Rapala Shad rap SR05 in Pink Clown, I found myself running down wind with 15-30 knots of wind. I was white knuckled and flying. It is a real testament to the shad rap that it actually kept a bite on the water. Until a chopper tailor took a liking to it. Then a small shark, possibly and most likely, took a liking to the tailor (any theories appreciated. Had I not been moving so fast, I doubt there would have been much left of the fish. After hookup, I turned to furl the sail when the reel gave an almighty screech. I was ecstatic, thinking I was onto a biggun. Once the sail was furled and rod number two was wound in and stowed, there was very little fight left in the fish. Wasn't until I got it yakside that I realised it was maimed.

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So I kept trolling, the wind getting seriously savage: gusty and variable. A storm was approaching, but the thrill of screaming down the river through these squalls had me. Moving mostly too fast for anything to chase the lures, I made it to the Kings creek Junction and quickly shoved on some wet weather gear as the storm hit. I made a U-turn and sailed for home, tacking up the widest parts of the river and just belting as hard as I could go into the wind on the narrower parts. Seems I had a headwind and a racing outgoing tide that kept me stationary at moments. Damn it was wild. Beating into the wind one moment then running downwind the next, then a jibe and a broad reach the next. It took all my years experience racing sail boats just too keep myself from being flattened over and over again. This has made me re-evaluate my sailing set up somewhat, there are things I need to differently. I need to be able to cleat the roller furling sheet for a start, so I can reef the sail.

Closer to home, a sizeable tailor took a liking to my 2” hard body profile, a hot pink one. Went berserk, aerobatic, tail walking. When I finally got it next to the yak, I could see that the lure hadn't pinned the fish at all, but a set of shiny new 3/0 ganged hooks poking out from its jaw. How I kept it next to me for so long, I don't know. I don't tend to take a landing net with me any more, it was too frisky with way too much sharp metal in it's mouth to either grab or lip grip and too small to gaff. So I tried to clean lift it by the leader. Of course it went ballistic and the terminal knot unravelled fast. Luckily the lure was left floating a few meters away, so I just picked it up and tied it back on the leader again, properly this time. So next time that little voice in your head says to retie that knot, just retie it.

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The Rapala Shard Rap SR07 went over the side this time, and trolled sweetly through some deeper holes where it met the most enthusiastic jaws of a sub 40cm jewie. I had doubts whether the Shard rap form was too high, not skinny enough, fro the Jewfish, as a few trips had been fruitless, even though their action in the water is nice and tight. This little fish has me cured of that. The rest of the day was totally uneventful, the pedal home really tough against such a fast flowing tide. I left the river spent, to let the birds of prey wheeling overhead continue to nail mullet form the surface.